It is very gratifying to find this thread still active after four years. Thank all of you for your kind comments. I am glad that you have found the chronicle useful and enjoyable. I wasn't able to rear butterflies for the last several summers, but this year I am making up for the lapse. I am now in my third generation, and I estimate I am feeding around 60 cats in all instars. In addition, about 15 have pupated in the last two days. I have very large three-year old fennel plants that is my main food source, but some of the plants have matured and don't have much edible material left. I managed to deadhead one of the plants after the last generation of cats pupated, and that one still has some green foliage and soft seeds and flowers. I have been gradually introducing flat parsley into the feeding, but I am also finding huge cats on the parsley. Every time I go out to cut food, I find more cats. Once again, I'm starting to worry about having enough food. Tomorrow I'll check the nurseries for host plants and try to get some new growth going (pesticide free) before the fennel and parsley run completely out. geni

It sounds like everyone is having a busy weekend, quilting or otherwise! Well, you know what they say about "idle hands", so I don't think we'll have any problems here, eh? Friday night we got hit with a fast-acting blizzard (2 feet of snow in just about 12 hours), so the state police closed the post office I work in, so I came home to a 4-day weekend. Yesterday I made a set of 4 coasters for the current Seeds-n-Stitches swap. I call them Grape Pie Coasters, and whenever they're washed, the "crust" will become more pronounced as they unravel a little. The blue fabric is the underside of the coaster, and I'm glad I had some fabric to make the interwoven crust with! I'm hoping to finish a quilt I'm in the middle of making. Instead of making a bunch of crazy quilt blocks, I'm doing the whole thing as one huge block. I'm also planning on working on blocks for the birthday block exchange and the mystery quilt I'm hosting for Aprils S-n-S group. But, right now, I think it's time to go bake some sugar cookies to enjoy with my coffee this morning! Have a great weekend everyone! Dan

I too havent been here for yrs! moved to condo, no space :>( BUT this is SO inspiring!! stunning! I just finished an outdoor sign for my bro-in-law, forgot all my prev knowledge (used unsanded, etc, came out too white, blahblah..lol), so..we'll see..this is quite wonderful..(had a REAL pond at the house, miss it so..)

All depends on the code inspector. I want to be present for the final inspection. If he says okay then I'll let it go. I can't imagine how it would possibly pass inspection though w/ that gap between the porch railings and 1st column. I was very disappointed w/ how the stair railings turned out. I anticipated posts at the bottom but when I went back and looked at the plans that is not how they were drawn up so I won't argue about that. I was however very disappointed w/ how the individual balustrades turned out. I could have sworn he told me that he would turn them to match the original porch railing balustrades and the contractor made them square. DH said that he didn't recall specifics about that. Had there been clearer communication/ expectations set and, I would simply have had DH turn some at the shop to match the porch railing if the contractor couldn't do it. The contractor had also told me that DH built the porch framing two inches too short (we brought the contractor in when DH finally realized that there wasn't enough time in the world for him to finish & run our business). The contractor told me that he knew it was too short because the columns were too short "and you know, that's why I don't like to come in after someone has already begun a project and piecemeal it together. If I were to do it from the beginning I would have...." and that's when I started walking down the street and said to him "Did you notice that all of the porches on the block are built the same way? You're missing a 2" block of concrete that sets underneath all of the pillars on every porch on the street. That's where your missing 2"s is at." So it's little things like that (the excuses) that are driving me crazy. Although reading the blueprints that call for steps 8' across and deciding that it should 6' and building them that way w/o consulting w/ me is going to be a cost that he will have to eat if it fails inspection. I'm not sure who he thinks he's messing w/, but I'm pretty familiar w/ certain aspects of building and I'm pretty particular and that's why DH put me in charge. I'm always one to learn a lesson, but once learned, I remember and don't go back. I'm just happy that my first contractor experience happened in this house and not our next one. Now I know.